Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-01-27
A Fearful Calamity in a
London Public Hall.
A False Alarm Of Fire Starts Pan.
ic in Which Men, Women and
Children are Trampled and
Crushed by the Fright
ened Crowd.

LONDON, January 19.-The hall In
Princes street, Spitalfelds, where
fatal panic occurred last night, is IA
yorite resort for the Jews of that part
of London. Last evening benefit per-
formance was given and the place was
crowded. During the progress of the
play man and woman qHarreled in the
street outside and near the main door,
way Of the hall. The man used violence
and the woman screamed. Her cry
was heard by passer-by, who misun-
derstood it and shouted Fire" The
woman's screams and the cries of fire.
were heard inside and at once created
| a panic, the audience, numbering fYe
hundred, rising in body and rushing
pell-Mell for the main entrance.
The manager of the Hebrew Dramat-
ic Club, which was giving the enter
tainment, was Oh the stage when the
panic began. He perceived at once
that there was no good reason for it
and did all in his power to allay the eX-
citement and to afford all possible fa-
cilities tor theexit Of the people. The
hall has number Of entrances and he
had them all thrown wide open, and
called on the people when they would
not remain to divide and use all the
doorways. But they paid no attention
to him. In fact, many of them CON-
strued the managers earnestness into
proof that there was fire and these in
creased their eXertions to get out. The
whole crowd, as If with one impulse,
made for the main entrance. 1t hap
pened that among those who first reach
ed it were number of women and chill
, dren, who had been occupying some of
the rear seats. They were overborne
by strong men attempting to pass them
and as the women and children fell at
the doorway they tripped up others who
were crushed down by the rush of the
frantic crowd. It took but few min
utes to empty the house and the alarm
was so thorough that not soul among
the entire audience refraincd from the
struggle to get out.
EVERY ONE FOR HIMSELF"
When the people, after reaching the
street. .ascertaned the facts of the situa.
tion scene of great disorder ofanother
kind ensusd, caused by the discovery
that numbers were missing. Then
rush back was made This. however.
was stopped at the main entrance by
the police, who had arrived and assum-
ed control. Seventeen corpses were
found inside the theatre. near the door.
They were all torn, crushed and disfig-
ured. OF the dead, twelve were
women, three were boys, one was girl
and the other a man. The remains
were almost unrecognizable. Eye-wlt
nesses say that the way the strong men
who got uppermost in the struggle at
the door crushed and tramplec on those
who fell down in the conflict was indie.
scribably ruthless and brutal, although
of course not wilful, it being a case of
"every one Cor himself" A number
Of infants carried in their mothers
arms and clung to through all the pam
ic were also crushed or smothered to
death and a umber of others we're fa-
tally injured.
The scene during the attempted re-
turn of the crowd was painful in the
extreme. The bereaved remained at
the doorways all night waiting to have
their dead restored to them, and the
lamentations of the women were heart
breaking.
The hall to-day resembles disorder
ed auction room. Broken furniture,
crushed toys, children's hats, broken
bottles, orange peel, actors wigs and
shreds of clothes lie scattered over the
floor. There are many blood spots on
the backs of chairs as we'll as on the
floor. Every here and there CHASTITY
knots of hair are clinging to the furni-
ture. Several escapes were made
through the windows, most of which
are badly smashed.
A TERRIBLE STRUGGLE.
The bodies were found at the bottom
of the stone stairs leading 10 the gal.
lery. Here a terrible struggle took
place between the front of the crowd
rushed from the main floor and the
leaders of the throng which rushed
down the gallery stairs. The dead lay
mostly in two opposing rows, the feet
of each row close to those of the other,
one row of heads lying toward the gal
lery stairway, the other toward the
opposite side of the hall. The faces of
the dead were distorted with agonized
expressions. A little girl, since identi-
fed as Eva Marks, was found lying at the
bottom of pile Of dead. Her lower
limbs were bare and the upper part OF
dress was torn to shreds, showing that
she had fought hard for life. Isaac
Levy, a venerable man, with long white
flowing beard and hair, was found
among the dead. He and his wife were
regular attendants at the performances